And hello to one and all.
If you are checking in, I'm here -- we're here, and it's Christmas at the Way Out Inn.
Just like Lake Woebegon, "It's been a busy week here in the Way Out Inn..." We're all doing well and right now PS2 is keeping everybody entertained to some extent as I quickly slap an entry together.
Apologies for any sloppiness of language and grammar -- a bit too much cabernet sav. has taken its toll on me this afternoon. Wine never EVER used to get me this buzzed this fast -- especially in the presence of my inlaws! but ...
My enjoyment of it combined with my over indulgence has resulted in me not being able to feel my fingertips too fully, so typos may just occur. I know you will have sympaticos and forgive.
When we last left off here at the Way Out Inn, it was my sister's birthday and I gave her a little love, and I bragged on being well prepared for the holiday.
Not much has changed -- The biggest stories happened on Monday and on Wednesday. I'll entertain with both:
Monday: Jessica and I were watching Brett Favre kick some serious ASS on the Raiders (those black and silver fuckers). Brett just lost his dear old father Irvin on Sunday, God rest his soul, and Brett decided that he wouldn't sit out the game or leave to go home to be with family -- he played, and he routed. He kicked ASS at 41-7, most of that in the first half, and I loved every second of his playing.
Have I ever told you I think Brett Favre is a demi-god? Well. I do. Aside from just being cute as all get out, he's the most exciting qb to watch. And I love to watch him.
And his team responded to his drama -- and they played hard for him. And caught EVERYTHING he threw at them. And the GB defense protected him harder than ever, and he routed. He creamed. He kicked. Ass. For. His. Dad. And I cried for him.
Anyway -- while watching this game, Jessie and I saw a TV commercial for Verizon with some cross promotional shit they're doing with Return of the King. Which, by the way, we still haven't seen. But.
And she says to me "I wonder if the Companions would have had an easier time of it if they had text messaging with Verizon Wireless."
Which in and of itself is frickin funny, but we took it the next (il)logical step. We pretended to use our 'wireless' handhelds to text message dialogue from the movies (which we'd watched for hours and hours and ... hours all weekend, thanks to Starz and the running of both the first 2/3 of the trilogy all damn weekend).
"Shiiiiiire..... Baaaagggggins" [send]
"I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn" [send]
"Fly! You fools!" [send]
"Not the beard!!!" [send]
"You SHALL NOT PAAAAASSSS!!!" [send]
"No one tosses a dwarf!" [send]
"My preccccciousssssssss!!!!!" [send]
"The fat hobbit, he knows! Trixy hobbits!" [send]
"Get off the road!" [send]
"Mushrooms!" [send]
"What about second breakfast, elevensies, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, supper!" [send]
"He knows about them doesn't he!" [send]
We sat there, pretending to dial up the wireless text messages in our invisible hand held phones text messaging our 9 companions in our hands...
"Speak Friend and you shall enter!" [send]
and we laughed and laughed and laughed... and you get the point...
We went on and on and on like this for close to a half hour. Doug walked through the room and uttered "Neeerrrrrrds!" And yes, we are.
[send]
On Wednesday we had our office Christmas/Holiday Party, and I was, again, in charge.
I was given the duty of organizing the Chinese take out and the setup. Which I did. To the extreme. I got mad props and a kiss on the cheek from the CEO/president for it.
And that was nice. I however started my morning off with a shitty bang.
I stopped at the local liquor emporium to purchase a giftykin for my boss A. They had little pre-made baskets of cheer, of which I picked one for miss A and figured it'd be the best 40 I had spent in recent history.
I placed the little gift basket on the floor of the front seat, and when I drove away to head to the office the little basket of happiness shifted, and I felt that it was precariously balanced on the floor there, so I wanted to fix it. I pulled over, put Quimby in park, jumped out, ran around the side...
and while I was running around the other side the little basket of joy shifted, and leaned 'gainst the truck's insides. So when I opened the door...
the basket fell on the ground at my feet.
I heard a loud shattering of glass, and started to cry.
Forty dollars dropped straight down the shit hole. Nothing to give my boss. No gift to show for. No Grinch Who Stole Christmas music montage playing behind me telling me that it was all okay because as long as we have hands to clasp Christmas will be in our grasp...
I looked down, and the only thing out of the basket of incredibly fragile items that was destroyed was the cookie plate... the rest of everything, including the bottle of Brazilian dessert wine, was unbroken and fine.
It didn't spare me the good cry I had on the side of the road as I reassembled the pieces of the shattered major award that my boss was about to receive from me (Kudos to those of you whom the "shattered major award" thing means something) and I made it to the office and survived the day.
Aaron and Michelle arrived at about 3pm, for a quick side visit as they headed home to Connecticut. That and the fact they had purchased a Magellan GPS for Aaron's brother Jeff for Christmas and Aaron was having a hard time getting the thing to work at home, so he wanted us to help him with it. Can't say no as one is willing to share the philosophy and fun of Geocaching with a friend.
"Speak Friend and ye shall enter!"[send]
My inlaws came shortly thereafter.
The kids needed to be at the church no later than 4:30pm for the annual pageant, so I helped Aaron as best I could before bailing with them and leaving him with an incoming from work Douglas.
I guest-starred as a sheep, as Geoff was a shepherd in the pageant this year (and yes, he did sneak out the "It's superman!" line, but only the first couple rows heard him). We survived the pageant, and I made a fetching sheep.
Here are the four shepherds: from Left to Right, Geoff, C, D, and R.
The boy beside Geoff (aka C) could be Geoff in 2 yrs. They were all good shepherds. Two of the three kings of orient are glomming in on the photo oportunity. Typical of those three king types.
We had lasagne for dinner and hooked Doug's parents up with the couch, put the presents under the tree and I was out cold by 1am.
Geoff was up at 6. I told him to go back to bed or sit on the couch and not wake Grandma and Grampa. He did a good job until just before 7am when he couldn't take it anymore. I had Jessica take the dogs out while I made coffee, and Geoff opened one present while all of us got our acts together and got ready for the morning...
If it weren't for coffee, I wouldn't have made it.
Anyway -- the kids had a ton of fun opening presents. Geoff, for as impetuous as he can be, opened one thing at a time and played with it for a good long while before moving on to the next item.
The big hit that Santa left was a Playstation2 system. It has been played with all day, and may play us a DVD or three before we hit the hay tonight. I bought Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo for the kids, so that'd be a good thing to watch tonight.
Anyway - I am so tired. Five hours of sleep combined with good wine have made this fat little hobbit rather sleepy. I'll end things here, and wish you all a happy and fun Christmas.
Much love to you all. Each of you I hold precious.
"Precious... my precious..." [send]
Geoff and his electric guitar, performing BNL cover tunes on a couch near you!
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